A judge in Philadelphia cleared a man in an attempted murder case on Monday after he spent about a dozen years in prison related to a shooting for which officials said there was weak evidence and the prosecution did not meet the burden of proof. The decision ended a yearslong battle to overturn his conviction. […]
Read MoreTag: Criminal Justice
Supreme Court Sides With Government on Reduced Sentencing Law
The Supreme Court sided with the government on Friday, narrowly interpreting a provision of a landmark criminal justice law in a decision likely to limit the number of federal prisoners who are eligible for reduced sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. The decision, by a vote of 6 to 3, did not split along ideological lines. […]
Read MoreWith Sweeping New Laws, Louisiana Embraces Tough-on-Crime Approach
In 2017, Louisiana overhauled its criminal justice system with broad bipartisan support, all in an effort to lose the distinction of having the nation’s highest incarceration rate. Sentences were reduced. Opportunities for parole were expanded. Alternatives to prison were introduced. But seven years later, the state is sending a very different message: Those days are […]
Read MoreLauren Boebert Slams “Biden Crime Family” After Her Own Son Was Arrested
Screenshot So despite what Cooper said Tuesday evening, it is actually critical to talk about Gaza in any analysis of Michigan’s results. Talking about Israel’s bombing of Gaza—and how Biden is backing that bombing—is the actual politics of the issue. “I think sometimes as we’re talking about this issue, we are centering President Biden, we […]
Read MoreOops! Lauren Boebert Rips “Biden Crime Family” Just as Son Is Arrested
Screenshot So despite what Cooper said Tuesday evening, it is actually critical to talk about Gaza in any analysis of Michigan’s results. Talking about Israel’s bombing of Gaza—and how Biden is backing that bombing—is the actual politics of the issue. “I think sometimes as we’re talking about this issue, we are centering President Biden, we […]
Read MoreHypocrite Lauren Boebert Slams “Biden Crime Family” After Son Is Arrested
Screenshot So despite what Cooper said Tuesday evening, it is actually critical to talk about Gaza in any analysis of Michigan’s results. Talking about Israel’s bombing of Gaza—and how Biden is backing that bombing—is the actual politics of the issue. “I think sometimes as we’re talking about this issue, we are centering President Biden, we […]
Read MoreThe Suburbs Made the War on Drugs in Their Own Image
Even as Prohibition failed, President Herbert Hoover stubbornly applied the same approach to the trade in narcotics, which soon became a robust source of income for organized crime, as bootlegging had been. In June 1930, Hoover appointed former railroad detective and Prohibition agent Harry Anslinger commissioner of a new Federal Bureau of Narcotics. This as […]
Read MoreIt Sure Looks Like Trump Can’t Pay the Bond in His Fraud Trial
Biden summarized his various business ventures over the past couple decades, which included a few partnerships with his nephew Hunter. But Joe Biden “played no role, was not involved with, and received no benefits,” his brother said. Republicans have also seized on two checks that James Biden gave his older brother, one for $200,000 labeled […]
Read MoreTrump’s Rage at Snoop Dogg Unleashed Chaos During His Presidency
But the opinion also quotes the Bible as reasoning for functionally killing IVF access within the aggressively pro-life state, turning to an eyebrow-raising verse from Jeremiah 1:5 for guidance before deciding to make it harder for Alabamans to have a family. “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in […]
Read MoreTrump Spent His Final Hours as President Being Pissed at Snoop Dogg
But the opinion also quotes the Bible as reasoning for functionally killing IVF access within the aggressively pro-life state, turning to an eyebrow-raising verse from Jeremiah 1:5 for guidance before deciding to make it harder for Alabamans to have a family. “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in […]
Read MoreTrump Spent His Final Hours as President in a Feud with Snoop Dogg
But the opinion also quotes the Bible as reasoning for functionally killing IVF access within the aggressively pro-life state, turning to an eyebrow-raising verse from Jeremiah 1:5 for guidance before deciding to make it harder for Alabamans to have a family. “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in […]
Read MoreThe Supreme Court Is on the Verge of Criminalizing Homelessness
If it does so, that will have ramifications for all unhoused people, from those who have been chronically homeless for some time to those currently falling into homelessness. And that last category is a large one: In the time since the January 2023 homeless count, there have been at least 1,076,396 evictions across 10 states […]
Read MoreMaine Juvenile Justice: The State’s Youth Are In Crisis
Nearly three years ago, Maine lawmakers hoped to be in the vanguard of a national movement to transform how governments deal with teenagers who break the law. The legislators passed a bill aimed at closing the state’s only youth prison and expanding programs with a better record of rehabilitating adolescents. But Gov. Janet Mills, a […]
Read MoreMayor Adams Clashes With City Council Speaker on NYC’s Path
As Mayor Eric Adams battles low poll ratings, a federal investigation and potential challengers to his re-election in New York City, a Democratic ally has emerged as an unexpected adversary: Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker. Ms. Adams, who shares many of the mayor’s moderate stances, has become one of his most powerful and vocal […]
Read MoreJudge in E. Jean Carroll Trial Gives Jury Ominous Warning After Damning Trump Verdict
The benefits of free flights didn’t stop at the NRA head, who also effectively allowed his family to use the company credit card for trips, charging the NRA more than a million dollars for flights around the country, including a $26,995 flight from Dallas to Orlando, a $15,495 flight from Las Vegas to Nebraska, and […]
Read MoreTexas Gov. Greg Abbott Just Took His War With the Feds to the Next Level
New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization, and other company executives of fraudulently inflating the value of various real estate assets to get more favorable terms on bank loans. The judge presiding over that trial, Arthur Engoron, determined in September that Trump indeed committed fraud […]
Read More5 Takeaways From Kathy Hochul’s State of the State Address
In her third State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday laid out her vision for the coming legislative session and described objectives that often were more of a reflection of her moderate roots than the state’s recent progressive slant. She made crime a focal point, while barely mentioning the migrant crisis that […]
Read MoreViolent Crime Is Dropping Across the Nation—But Not in Washington, D.C. Here’s Why.
Structural causes Issues of racial inequality and gentrification are not unique to D.C., but they are particularly intense in the District. Once known as “Chocolate City” due to its majority-Black population, the demographics of the District have changed dramatically in recent decades, with Black residents accounting for only 45 percent of the city’s population in […]
Read MoreThe Nation’s Capital Is Falling Behind on Fighting Violent Crime. Here’s Why.
Structural Causes Issues of racial inequality and gentrification are not unique to D.C., but they are particularly intense in the District. Once known as “Chocolate City” due to its majority-Black population, the District has seen a dramatic change in demographics in recent decades, with Black residents accounting for only 45 percent of the city’s population […]
Read MoreLos Angeles D.A. Gascón Is Running for Re-election in a Very Different Climate
Three years ago, George Gascón rode a wave of collective outrage following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis to become district attorney of Los Angeles by promising to make the criminal justice system fairer and, most crucially, to rein in the police. Now, to win re-election and stay in office, Mr. Gascón will need […]
Read MorePardon Recipients Seek to Sell Trump on His Own Sentencing Law
In early July, former President Donald J. Trump received a somewhat unlikely visitor at his golf club and estate in Bedminster, N.J.: Michael Harris, the founder of Death Row Records, who had been imprisoned for drug trafficking and attempted murder, came to meet privately with the man who had pardoned him. Mr. Harris was connected […]
Read MoreCollege Is Undergoing a Revolution. It’s Happening Behind Bars
At the Bard Prison Initiative, where I work, 20 percent of bachelor’s degree candidates complete degrees in math and science at the same level as students on campus who come from elite high schools around the world. Incarcerated students majoring in history or literature all write original senior theses that are typically 100 pages in […]
Read MoreNew York Will Give a ‘Clean Slate’ to Formerly Incarcerated People
Roughly two million people convicted of crimes in New York may be eligible to have their records sealed as part of a broad criminal justice initiative that will be signed into law on Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Under the so-called Clean Slate Act, people who complete their sentences and remain out of trouble for […]
Read MoreTexas Dems Finally Push Back on Their Own DA Who’s Been Investigating Them
Even among his allies, Jordan’s shtick is beginning to “wear a little thin,” and he has possibly “worn out his welcome,” one senior House GOP member told Fox News’s Chad Pergram. Jordan’s long-shot bid to become speaker has only grown more fraught as the days have dragged on. In his first floor vote, 20 Republicans […]
Read MoreTexas Dems Finally Push Back on Their Own D.A. Who’s Been Investigating Them
Even among his allies, Jordan’s shtick is beginning to “wear a little thin,” and he has possibly “worn out his welcome,” one senior House GOP member told Fox News’s Chad Pergram. Jordan’s long-shot bid to become speaker has only grown more fraught as the days have dragged on. In his first floor vote, 20 Republicans […]
Read MoreFewer Black Americans Are Incarcerated Than 20 Years Ago, But The Problem Isn’t Behind Us
Over the last two decades, efforts to stem the tide of mass incarceration appear to have made inroads. A new report from the Sentencing Project found that the imprisonment rate for Black men was nearly cut in half since 2000. Kevin Johnson Executed By State of Missouri After Supreme Court Denies Appeal Off English However, […]
Read MoreMiles de migrantes son encarcelados en la frontera como testigos
Hace varios meses, un juez federal tramitaba una serie de casos de tráfico de migrantes en la bulliciosa ciudad fronteriza de Laredo, Texas, cuando tres personas fueron escoltadas a la sala. Como eran inmigrantes indocumentados, explicó el juez, los iban a enviar a la cárcel. Pero no se les imputaba ningún delito. Más bien, se […]
Read MoreJustice Department Detains Thousands of Immigrants as Witnesses
Several months ago, as a federal judge worked through a docket of smuggling cases in the bustling border city of Laredo, Texas, three people were escorted into the courtroom. Because they were undocumented immigrants, the judge explained, they would be sent to jail. But they were not being charged with a crime. Instead, they would […]
Read MoreOn First Day of New Term, Justices Hear Debate Over Reducing Mass Incarceration
In its first argument of the new term, the Supreme Court heard a case on Monday that explored a provision of a law aimed at reducing prison sentences for certain nonviolent drug crimes. The case focused on part of the First Step Act, bipartisan legislation passed in 2018 aimed at rolling back tough sentencing laws […]
Read MoreRejoice, America: These Trials Should Bring Donald Trump to Ruin
The sixth case, which is scheduled to start the same month as the insurrection case, on March 25, is the Stormy Daniels hush-money case. Now, this matter is generally considered the weakest of the group because a payment like the one Trump allegedly made isn’t a felony unless there’s an underlying felony crime. Manhattan DA […]
Read MoreWhy Is the GOP Suddenly Defending Democratic Corruption?
Granted, Trump’s public statements tend toward the erratic, and one can make too much of his perceived shifts. But the direction of these shifts aligned him better with what other Republicans were saying. According to Politico, Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, urged Menendez not to resign. (In a closed-door session Thursday with Democrats, […]
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